People of Canada
Celebrate the Charter
Today we are celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The people of Canada are celebrating but the Harper government is
not. For the people, the Charter is the
great hope that there may be justice and human rights for them . For the government, it is a pest that gets in
the way of unfettered power.
On the Current this morning we were reminded of the great
gains for women in Canada because of the charter. Among them were the establishment of the
right to control our own bodies and have an abortion if necessary and the right to maternity and paternity leave to
care for children. According to the
Ottawa Citizen the biggest changes are in the criminal justice system. Ken Roach reports that you can’t be convicted
of murder today unless the crown can prove you knew there was a possibility
that someone would die. People have a
right to see the evidence against them before they go to court. Evidence that was obtained illegally (such as
evidence derived by torture) is inadmissible in court. Tell that to Hassan Diab. http://www.justiceforhassandiab.org/
But Roach reports that it is unlikely that the courts will
overturn the mandatory minimums in Bill C-10.
The main effect of C-10 is that it reduces judicial discretion and
transfers that discretion to the prosecutor who decides what charges to
lay. According to Roach we have a good
balance between the political responsibility to legislate according to the
moral standards of the day and judicial discretion to protect our rights and
freedoms.
In the meantime, some people are still waiting for their
rights. The bill to give transgender
people full equality of rights was allowed to die in the Senate. Today Air Canada is still free to refuse to
allow a transgender person who has not had the full medical changes performed
to fly on an airplane. (According to
Transport Canada regulations a person must physically present as the same
gender as that written on their passport.)
And Obert Madondo (http://www.canadianprogressiveworld.com)
is on day 35 of his hunger strike. He is
demanding that Bill C-10 be struck down, and that the Harper Government give up
its anti-democratic practices – ramming bills through the house and Senate
without proper scrutiny and without democratic debate. Originally subjected to violence in Zimbabwe,
he came to Canada as a sanctuary and for awhile it was. But he sees the sanctuary he once saw
slipping away as Canada’s laws target the vulnerable at the bottom of society.
The people love the charter because it gives them hope that
perhaps, one day, justice will come.
